Wake Forest Office

Brady Cobin law office in Wake Forest, NCEstate Planning

Estate planning involves structuring your affairs so that, upon your death, the estate and transfer taxes charged to your estate are minimized, and your assets go to your family and loved ones consistent with your desires.

Are you planning to leave a estate? Our Wake Forest estate planning attorneys assist families at all stages of life with a focus on helping individuals and families make well-informed decisions about their estates and the distribution of their property. Thoughtful estate planning helps protect families with children in the event of an untimely death. They ensure that seniors have plans for long-term care, and effective planning can reduce probate fees and inheritance taxes.

While estate planning can be an emotional undertaking, it is best done when you have a clear mind and are not under pressure to make decisions. It is good to take time to consider the options we present to you, just as we will take the time to understand your goals and values so that we may craft an estate plan that honors your wishes. We suggest that estate plans drafted 10 years ago or longer be reviewed for potential updates to reflect changes in the tax code and/or in your needs and desires.

Probate Administration

Probate is the legal process of distributing the assets and property of a deceased person to his or her heirs. The Clerk of Superior Court in each county acts as probate judge to oversee the process. Probate requires completing a variety of forms to provide the necessary information and can be stressful, particularly after an unexpected death. Probate first requires gathering the relevant legal documents pertaining to the deceased and determining whether he or she left a valid will. Many smaller estates in North Carolina can be settled through less complicated, alternative methods instead of probate, so there may be options for settling your loved one’s affairs. Our Wake Forest probate attorneys can help you review your choices and determine the most appropriate type of estate to open for the Court’s needs.

We’ve created a probate timeline tool to help you understand some of the filing requirements and deadlines in the probate process that Wake Forest residents will follow in Wake County courts. Some steps require your presence, but as your probate attorneys, Brady Cobin Law Group will handle as much of the paperwork as possible to take the burden off of you.

Charitable Planning

Many individuals and families honor their values by leaving a legacy of support for their favorite charities, schools and/or other nonprofit organizations. Planned charitable gifts can provide tax advantages and lifetime income for you and your loved ones. Any significant charitable donation made during your lifetime or after your death should be structured as part of a comprehensive estate plan. An attorney at Brady Cobin Law Group can help you take the steps to make a planned charitable gift with appropriate tax-advantages to any charity or nonprofit organization that you wish to support.

Estate and Trust Litigation

Sometimes it is necessary to go to court to resolve disputes over the validity of wills, the distribution of assets, the execution of powers of attorney and the administration of trusts.

North Carolina law protects people age 65 and older as well as mentally or physically incapacitated adults from financial exploitation and abuse, including exploitation through the abuse of powers of attorney.

Our estate litigation attorneys can assist you with cases involving guardianship and competency issues, contested wills, trust fraud, and financial abuse of an elder. We handle trust litigation involving fraud, trustee bad faith and unclear beneficiaries.

Digital Assets Estate Planning

Your digital assets have value, including anything from digital music to blog or website content and domain names, to Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. Proper estate planning includes designating what happens to your digital property when you’re gone. We can help you make plans for digital files that you own and that have a tangible value that can be transferred as part of a will or another legal conveyance. We also can advise you about digital assets that you have licensed, such as software. Estate planning for digital assets can also help prevent online identity theft and continued charges for services that your estate could be required to pay if not identified and terminated.

Elder Law

Brady Cobin law office in Wake Forest, NCAs we age and become senior citizens, our needs change, and many of us rightly begin to focus on ensuring our health and access to medical care. Our Wake Forest elder law attorneys can work with you on a broad range of legal issues specific to older adults, including planning for long-term health care, establishing medical and end-of-life directives, guardianship, durable powers of attorney, and Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid benefits planning and acquisition. Our goal is to help you determine the plans you want in a place to protect yourself and your assets and ensure that your instructions are clear should you become incapacitated.

Estate Planning Services for Wake Forest, NC

The Town of Wake Forest is among the fastest-growing towns in North Carolina. Wake Forest’s location less than 10 miles north of Raleigh provides easy access to the capital and Wake County courts, Research Triangle Park, and the Triangle’s colleges and universities and the transportation system.

The median household income in Wake Forest is $85,155, which is significantly higher than the state and national median household incomes. Household wealth in Wake Forest has grown significantly as the town has grown over the last decade.

More Wake Forest residents can look forward to accumulating substantial estates over their lifetimes and would benefit from planning that provides the peace of mind of financial security and minimizes estate taxes when their assets are distributed to heirs and other beneficiaries.

The estate planning attorneys of Brady Cobin Law Group are located in Wake Forest to discuss your goals for protecting your accumulated wealth and providing for your family, business, schools, charities or other individuals or institutions. Our partner attorneys are board-certified estate planning specialists who have more than 50 years of combined experience in estate planning, estate litigation and elder law.

Contact us

Our North Carolina estate planning and elder law attorneys are committed to honoring the life, work and charity of every individual. Call us at (919) 782-3500 or complete the form below.

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